Love in Aces
by elsiecarson
Summary: Secrets are being kept at Hogwarts and gossip is being spread about more than one couple. Do both couples ace love school or are they thwarted? Does gossip tear them apart? Do the students find out and how do they react? All the problems of love and a school all in one. Please read and review.
1. Hallway Gossip

Professor Minerva McGonagall, the Transfiguration professor, was walking down to the Great Hall in Hogwarts wondering what crazy things were going to happen at the school that day, when Professor Pomona Sprout came up next to her and asked, through fits of giggles, "So, Minerva, have you heard the news about Severus?"

Minerva sighed, normally she didn't have time to listen to idle school gossip, however because it was about her arch nemesis, she was curious. "What about Severus? Has he died?"

"If only," Pomona said savagely. "No, here's a shock for everyone on staff, Severus Snape, the person without any emotions, is in love!"

"What! You must be fooling me, I've never seen Severus be as happy as he has been recently, but I thought he was just planning some malicious deed. He hasn't been in love out of all the years that I've known him, at least since he was a student. This absolutely must be a first!" Minerva spoke in a high-pitched, excited, young girl sort of voice that she hardly ever used, unless she was gossiping.

"Excuse me, ladies, may I join the conversation?" Albus Dumbledore had snuck up behind Pomona and Minerva while they were talking, and had known exactly what they were talking about, but had decided not to say anything.

Minerva in the mean time had turned a bright shade of red, as if it had suddenly gotten very warm in the Great Hall. As she sat down next to Albus at the head table she said, "If you must know we were talking about Severus. Pomona has just told me something very interesting. Severus is in love, but you interrupted before I got a chance to find out with whom."

Albus looked sheepish, but said nothing as they tucked into breakfast; of course he already knew exactly what Minerva was going to say. Pomona at the other end of the table, however, was having a grand time trying to tell her friends that there was more than one person on staff that was in love. "I swear, I've never seen Minerva McGonagall turn such a shade of red in my entire life, it was like she'd gone back to that very shy seventeen year old girl, hiding in the library of Hogwarts. She must like him a lot; she hasn't blushed like that, ever"

"Who is the lucky man that is taking her off our hands then, if I may ask, as you seem to be the authority on Minerva now, Pomona?" Filius Flitwick asked his wife, as though he really didn't care anyways, but he was actually very curious.

"Why, Albus, of course, silly man. He came up behind Minerva and me when we were talking, and she nearly went into conniptions." Pomona said laughing as if conniption fits were something to laugh about.

"Now, that rumour has been going around for fifty years. I wish one of the two of them would just admit or deny it, so we can move on. I don't see that they would, but old age and love can change people's minds." said Professor Aurora Sinistra, the astronomy professor, through a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

"They're not that old, but moving on to other school news. You will never guess who else is in love!" exclaimed Pomona excitedly to her colleagues.

"Who is it now pray tell?" asked Severus in his usual disdainful tone, as he swept into the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Oh, no one, Severus, no one." said Pomona quietly.


	2. Breakfast in the Great Hall

"That was the funniest conversation I have listened in on in a long time." Minerva said trying not to lose her composure in front of the students.

"And why would that be? Conversations aren't usually funny to you; you usually take them very seriously." Albus said looking at Minerva curiously.

"Oh, but this one was hysterical. Pomona was about to tell Filius, and Aurora who was in love in the school, but just as she was about divulge the information, the man himself, Severus, came in for breakfast, and poor Pomona had to beat a hasty retreat." Professor McGonagall was positively gasping for air in her effort not to laugh.

"Severus is in love? Why didn't you say so earlier, that is funny." Albus said when he was abruptly cut off by Minerva.

"I did tell you, why don't you listen? I told you the minute we sat down that Severus was in love. Why don't you pay attention to me when I'm talking to you?" Minerva demanded angrily.

"I do listen to you, but looking sheepish takes too much effort to do two things at once I suppose. That and technically I already knew that Severus is enamoured with somebody" Albus said looking very embarrassed. He just knew that that was not the end of Minerva McGonagall's wrath for the day. Scottish women hold grudges very well, Albus thought absentmindedly.

"Fantastic," said Minerva trying to lower her voice so that the students didn't hear the argument. "Our headmaster can't do two things at once. How do you ever get anything done may I ask? And who, in the world, is Severus in love with, and if you've known all along why didn't you tell me about him yourself?"

"I don't get anything done; you do everything for me, as you are well aware. You need to stop being so sensitive about me not paying attention all the time, I have my own little world that I'm in most of the time. Remember that if there's something important that I need to know I'm very attentive, I try not to gossip, however, around staff members, it creates a childish atmosphere." Albus said training his eyes on the shaking figure of Minerva McGonagall, knowing she was furious with him for not listening to her.

"Fine, be secretive about everything. I'll see you later; I have to go talk to Pomona before I start marking. She said something earlier that surprised me a little bit more than when she told me about Severus." Minerva said as she gracefully stood up and tapped Pomona on the shoulder before they both exited the Great Hall.


	3. Pomona and Minerva

"Good grief, what is the matter, Minerva; you practically knocked me off my chair a moment ago." Pomona Sprout glared at her friend, as they walked out the front door of the school.

"We never finished the conversation about Severus," Minerva hissed trying to keep her voice low to prevent students from hearing her. "You never told me who Severus loves, so now I want to know, who is it?"

"You'll never guess," Pomona said giggling.

"Well, if I'm never going to guess why don't you tell me?" Minerva said getting annoyed that Pomona couldn't stay level-headed.

"Oh, all right, but you're no fun. It's Rolanda Hooch. I know isn't it amazing how crazy people in love are, although I suppose they make a good pair. They're both fairly nutty." Pomona made the last comment in reaction to the look on Minerva's face.

"You must be teasing me, Pomona; they've hated each other for years. I wonder what changed their minds. Severus usually sticks to his opinions. Interesting, that is certainly the oddest pair in this school." Minerva said with her chin in her hands, as they walked towards the lake, pondering what had changed between the two professors.

"Odder, you mean, than say, oh, Albus and you?" Pomona asked, seeing if she could get a rise out of the older, by one year, woman.

"How did you know about that? We were trying to be so discreet, but I suppose people are starting to notice. Should we let the staff know do you suppose? It seems odd to be talking about this with you after keeping the relationship a secret for so long." Minerva was in a state of shock over the fact that anyone had figured out that she and Albus were a couple.

"It was fairly obvious this morning when you blushed just looking at him. You reverted to a shy, young girl so quickly I would have sworn that you had been put under a spell, except for the fact that I know you've loved him for a very long time. How long has this been going on? I would have thought that you would have been dying to tell someone that you'd finally landed the man of your dreams. Tell the staff otherwise some other woman may try to snatch up Albus, after all, he is a wonderful, caring man, and desperate women like men like that." Pomona said as they walked around the lake.

Minerva thought about this and decided that it made sense. She sipped her tea, and discovering it was cold threw the remainder in the lake, to the delight of the giant squid, which bravely waved a tentacle at her from the water. She sat down on the grass, under a tree, next to the lake, in the sunshine and watched the children walk across the grounds. Presently, Pomona sat beside her and asked if anything was wrong. Promptly Minerva put on her mask, so she didn't show her emotions, because she hated letting her emotions show, and said, "I just need some time by myself, good thing it's a Saturday."


	4. In the Teachers' Garden

Minerva walked off to the private, teachers' only part of the grounds, where there was a walled garden she could relax in.

Sitting in the brilliant sun in the garden was more relaxing than Minerva had ever remembered since she had started teaching at Hogwarts fifty years ago. Suddenly she heard footsteps behind her, and she jumped as she was not expecting anyone else to be out on a Saturday. Most professors had marking to do; she did too, but she had to deal with her relationship first.

"Hi, beautiful, I thought I might find you here." said Albus coming and sitting next to Minerva, and putting his arm around her; she was sitting on the marble bench that sat in the middle of the garden. "I take it Pomona figured out about us at breakfast; otherwise you'd be locked in your office finishing off all those papers you have to mark. Now, tell me what's bothering you, hmm? You can't hold it in forever and I'd prefer that you don't take it out on me in the future, so talk to me now."

"Albus! You scared me half to death. I wasn't expecting any interruptions. I only come here when I really need to think and as it's a beautiful day, I thought that it would be perfect." Minerva said lying through her teeth because she wasn't ready to talk to anyone quite yet.

"Minerva Kathryn McGonagall, don't lie to me, I know the truth. I talked to Pomona when she came in from walking with you, and she seemed upset with something she or you said, and as I know you and your Scottish temper I thought it might have been you who said something rotten. Now, come on, talk to me, I won't tell anyone what you've said, I promise." Albus said trying to coax her into telling him because she was so stubborn.

"She's just angry because I didn't tell her about us when we first got together. She knows about us, she figured it out at breakfast this morning, and when she confronted me on our walk I may have let it slip that we'd been dating for a while. I'm afraid that she may tell the staff if we don't do it first. I'm scared, I don't know how the staff will react, and I'm not sure that I'm ready to have people prying into my private life again. On the other hand, I love you and I'm not afraid to let everyone know, but for the first time in a long time, I feel really unsure of how to handle this situation, I suppose, because I've never been in this situation before." Minerva sighed as she said this and put her hand over Albus', as if to let him know that things would be okay between the two of them no matter what.

"I know you and Pomona are close friends but you should have told her that we made a pact to keep the relationship a secret because we are both very private people. I'm sorry you're fighting with her over me that is not fair. We can tell the staff if you want, but only if you're absolutely certain that making our relationship public is absolutely what you want to do. I don't want Pomona pressuring you into telling the staff anything, be independent, the way you've always been, and make your own choices and everything will come out right in the end. I'm leaving this in your hands, I'm fine either way, if you decide that we're going public that's fine and if you decide we're not that's fine too. So long as you're comfortable and happy, I'm happy. I love you. By the way, Pomona is not the only one who knows about us. When she guessed this morning, she told Filius and Aurora at breakfast about what she saw, although I don't think Aurora was very convinced. I have a very important question to ask you and please don't interrupt, I don't get nervous very often, but I certainly am now." Albus said as he got onto one knee on the grass in front of her. If he had only known that Pomona, Filius, Severus, Sybil, Hagrid, Madame Poppy Pomfrey, and Aurora were watching he would never have asked what he was about to ask the shy, and private Minerva McGonagall. "I know you love me, and if you love me half as much as I love you then this is not a stretch. I fell in love with you heart and soul, you are my world, and I can't imagine one day for the rest of my life without you. Will you, Minerva McGonagall, make an old fool very happy and marry me?" As he said this he produced a ring with an emerald centre stone and diamond edging.

While he had said all this Minerva had quietly started to cry. "Why in the world would you want to marry me, I'm only going to cause problems with the board of governors for Hogwarts, you know that as well as I do. But, as you've asked and I'm not abject to the idea, yes, of course I'll marry you. I love you, my angel, and I really don't deserve you or your love, but as you've so kindly bestowed it upon me I want to thank you." Minerva said this as she kneeled down on the grass beside Albus.

"The board of governors can take their old-fashioned rules and stuff them. Nothing is going to come between me and marrying you, especially not the board of governors. For someone who's as brilliant as you are I can't believe you think that you don't deserve my love. You're the only one in the whole world who does deserve it; love is very subjective, and I've picked you to share my life with, please remember that you are important, lovely, and very caring. That is why I love you. Well," Albus said, "that and you're very sexy, and you're an excellent French-kisser."

When this was proclaimed by Albus, Madame Poppy Pomfrey promptly fell out of the bush that the staff was hiding behind, and due to the crash Minerva had whirled around to face the bush. "I should have known." said Minerva walking over, picking Poppy up, looking behind the bush, and finding the rest of the staff. "All right the show is over, vacate this garden immediately, and don't tell anyone else about what you have seen here. If Albus and I choose to announce this I want it to be a surprise to everyone else. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

A chorus of yeses went up as none of the people who had been hiding in the bush wanted to incur the wrath of Minerva McGonagall over anything, but her private life was something that she got irate about if someone told a secret to anyone. All the professors quickly left the garden, and Minerva slowly walked back to where Albus was still sitting on the grass.


	5. Kisses and Serious Talks

"I wouldn't worry about them if I were you, they're only curious about whether we're actually a couple or not, after all there have been rumours going around about the two of us since you started working here fifty years ago. Now, come and sit next to me so I can give you your engagement ring that I painstakingly picked out. I do hope you like it; I picked a colour I know you like, so that you won't be nervous about wearing it." Albus said as Minerva came and sat next to him on the grass and gave him a hug.

"I'm not worried; I just don't know if any of those people can keep a secret for long. They're all notorious gossips; the only one I am sure I can count on to keep quiet is Hagrid. He'd never betray me or you or Hogwarts. That's the only problem, but let's not worry about that now. The ring is beautiful, you have excellent taste, but I knew that all along. I'll never ever take it off and why in the world would you think I'd be nervous about wearing your ring? I'm nothing but honoured that you chose me to spend the rest of your life with." Minerva said this as Albus placed the ring on her finger. She smiled with happiness and stroked the side of his face with her knuckles. "Kiss me," she requested in a whispery, delicate voice. One which she often thought should be reserved for the bedroom, but this seemed like an opportune moment, especially since she felt so loved.

"With pleasure." Albus said as he bent his head over Minerva's and engulfed her mouth in a mind-blowing kiss. As he kissed her more passionately her hands came up and wrapped themselves around his neck for protection.

Albus rolled onto his back and pulled Minerva over him as they continued to kiss. "Not here, Albus, it's too public for a romantic display like this." Minerva breathed heavily. These words were interrupted by another hot, passionate kiss that enveloped anything else she was planning to say.

"You just sent the whole staff away on pain of death what do we have to worry about?" Albus asked as he released Minerva from the kiss and his arms.

"Nothing I suppose, I'm just a very private person, as are you, so I thought. If someone had walked in on that, especially a student, as they can get in here in emergencies, they would have been blown away, and I for one would have been mortified. It's not that I don't want people to know that we're in love, I do, but walking in on a scene like that might not be the best way to make an announcement." Minerva quickly blurted this all out, just in case she was making a fool of herself, which she hated to do.

"Blown away may have been the wrong choice of words for the situation as most people already think that we're romantically involved. Students however, would probably be down right disgusted, no offence to you, but we're not as young as we once were and students with overactive imaginations may get the wrong idea about what they were seeing. I know that you love me; I see it in your eyes every day when I go to bed and when I wake up." Albus spoke softly into Minerva's hair and breathed in the scent of her lavender shampoo and held her close.

Minerva didn't say anything, but just enjoyed the moment. She loved the feeling of being held tight by the man she had loved for years. Albus stood up and pulled Minerva with him, and they swayed together in a hug in the warm, June breeze. Minerva laid her head on Albus' shoulder and sighed a deep, contented sigh. No words needed to be exchanged between the two as they stood in the garden; they understood each other in that moment perfectly.

When Minerva closed her eyes in that moment she could see her and Albus sitting in front of the fire, years in the future, with grandchildren playing quietly on the floor. As she thought about children she realized that she and Albus had never discussed or even mentioned the possibility of having children. "Albus?" she said softly; she didn't want to ruin the moment that had developed in the sunshine.

"Yes, darling," Albus replied as he looked down at the top of Minerva's head, hoping that what she was about to say wasn't bad news.

"Do you want to have children?" Minerva asked hesitantly; she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the answer. "With me I mean."

"I'd love to, darling; I thought you knew that, it's just that I didn't think you could have children any more so I never brought the subject up." Albus said being completely honest.

"Neither did I, honestly, until now. I went for my yearly physical yesterday and Poppy told me it was still possible for me to have a happy, healthy baby, and I would be okay as well." said Minerva hastily as she saw the look on Albus' face.

"Well, it's up to you really. I've always wanted to have children, and as long as you feel healthy enough to attempt giving birth to a child, I'm in, so to speak. I'd be willing to give it a try as long as you will promise that if you're not up to it you will tell me. Having a baby won't work unless we're completely honest with each other." Albus said as they sat back down on the bench and Minerva placed her head on his shoulder. "And I'll start by being honest right now; I haven't had sex for over twenty years. I was waiting for you, I suppose." Albus said veryquietly indeed.

Minerva's head jerked up off of Albus' shoulder as if she was surprised and then she said sarcastically. "I never would have guessed, but don't worry, you'll just have to join the club."

"What! Don't tell me that a beautiful woman like you has been celibate for twenty years." Albus exclaimed very shocked that such a beautiful woman hadn't been dating and enjoying life for twenty years.

"I was waiting for you, too, I suppose, and it's been far longer than twenty years. Try thirty-five and you might be closer to what the length of time actually is, if you don't count dreams of course." Minerva said this slowly and deliberately as if each word lifted a weight off her shoulders.

"It's amazing isn't it, that we were each waiting for the other to make a move, we were foolish, and obviously too proud for either of us to take a leap of faith, until it was almost too late. Can I ask you something? Who did you dream about being with for thirty five years?" Albus almost whispered the last question; as if he wasn't sure he really wanted to know.

"You of course, I've loved you from the day I walked in the door to teach at Hogwarts, fifty years ago. All the girls in my year including me had a crush on you while we were at school here. I think that you've changed a lot over the years; however, I know you've kept that young school boy charm that is so endearing. You're very easy to love you know, even though you can be exasperating sometimes." Minerva smiled as she said this as she looked back at all the years she'd spent at Hogwarts.

"I knew everyone had a crush on me, but I never thought you'd carried that with you for all these years. You amaze me. Do we want to go out tonight or would we rather stay in for dinner?" Albus asked changing the subject very quickly.

"Let's stay in, but why don't we eat in my room and I'll cook? You always said that you thought I couldn't cook, why don't I prove you wrong? I'm sorry that I never let you know that the only one for me was you, it all seems rather foolish now." said Minerva looking down at her hands with a forlorn, embarrassed look.

"All right we'll stay in tonight, and I never said you were a bad cook, that was Remus. You can't blame yourself entirely for us not being together sooner, neither of us said anything in the fifty years that we've worked together. Maybe we just avoided the obvious because it was just that, far too obvious. Too many people thought that we were a couple, so it seemed ridiculous to us. It's nice to know however, that I was not the only one who had those feelings. I thought it may have been the musings of an old fool, but I was wrong it was the musings of two old fools." Albus said teasing Minerva about the fact that neither of them were in their prime anymore.

"Stop it; you know I'm sensitive about my age. You're right though, you know it took old age for me to realise how I truly felt about you. Silly, isn't it that we took fifty years of our lives to figure out that the reason that we get along so well is actually because we love and admire each other so much. You and I really are foolish; it only took every one of my friends to make me see that we were meant to be. It all seems so silly now that we've been together for a year." Minerva looked down at her hands and twirled her engagement ring around her finger.

"Let's not fuss about any of that now. What do you think of telling the whole staff now of our engagement? It would save bother later when we just want to be alone."


	6. Cold and Worries

Albus desperately wanted to get out of garden; he was freezing cold due to the cold north wind that had suddenly blown up, and as Minerva was a slighter person than he was she must have been cold too. It was cooler in the shadows of the garden than he anticipated. "Shall we head in? It is cooler than I anticipated under the shade of the trees." Albus held Minerva's hand in his and began to walk towards the exit.

Minerva stopped suddenly. "You aren't going to make me speak when we make our announcement are you? I'm so nervous I don't know if I could keep my words straight." Her Scottish accent was more pronounced as she spoke as it often was when she was nervous.

"Not if you don't want to. I'll announce everything if it makes you feel better." Albus said as he put his arm around Minerva and walked with her towards the castle to get out of the increasing cold as the day began to come to an end.

"All right, let's call a staff meeting now and get this all over with. I'd hate for someone to interrupt our evening later on they'd come out on the wrong end of my tongue and probably my wand." Minerva said as she held Albus' hand in hers.

"All right, I'll ask everyone to meet in my office; it's more private and we're less likely to be overheard. We'll go get settled and then we'll ask everyone to join us." Albus said as they got to the doors of the castle.

Minerva dropped Albus' hand the second they got in the front door. When they got to Albus' office she paced up and down in nervousness waiting for the staff to show up for the meeting. "Minerva, you're making me nervous." Albus said gently as he chuckled at her. It was rare to ever see her so flustered.

"You're not nervous? How can you not be nervous! We're about to announce our engagement and you're not nervous! You do know how to drive me crazy!" Minerva cried as she continued pacing the length of the office.


End file.
